Method, system, and article for audibly identifying a called party

ABSTRACT

A dialed number of a called party is received from a calling party. Based on the dialed number, a name of the called party is retrieved from a database. An audio message which includes the name of the called party is generated and communicated to the calling party. A call is routed between the calling party and the called party after said communicating the audio message.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent document is a continuation of application Ser. No.10/223,063 filed Aug. 16, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,218,717, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 09/293,166, filed Apr. 16, 1999,now U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,143. All of the foregoing applications arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to methods, systems, and articles foraudibly identifying a called party.

2. Background of the Invention

Traditional caller identification services allow a called party toidentify a calling party of an incoming call. For outgoing calls,however, the called party is identified once the called party has beenreached. A caller determines that he/she has misdialed a telephonenumber after being informed of same by an unintended called party.

Some private branch exchange (PBX) configurations allow calleridentification information to be displayed in relation to an outgoingcall if the outgoing call is to another line of the PBX. Businesscallers use this feature to determine if they have dialed a correctnumber before the call is placed or answered.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims.However, other features of the invention will become more apparent andthe invention will be best understood by referring to the followingdetailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic/block diagram of an embodiment of a system foraudibly identifying a called party; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method of audiblyidentifying a called party.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention provides an improved telephone service for audiblyidentifying a called party. Description of embodiments of the telephoneservice is made with reference to both FIG. 1, which shows aschematic/block diagram of an embodiment of a system for audiblyidentifying the called party, and FIG. 2, which shows a flow chart of anembodiment of a method of audibly identifying the called party.

The telephone service is provided in conjunction with a public telephonenetwork 10. The public telephone network 10, such as a public switchedtelephone network, serves a plurality of telephone parties. In alandline telephone network, for example, the public telephone network 10provides a plurality of telephone lines 14 to serve the telephoneparties. Each of the telephone parties and/or telephone lines 14 has aunique identifier associated therewith. In the landline telephonenetwork, for example, each of the telephone lines 14 is identified by anassociated calling party identification code or an automatic networkinterface (ANI) code.

The system comprises one or more telephone network elements 16 whichcooperate to provide the telephone service for audibly identifying thecalled party. Examples of the one or more telephone network elements 16include, but are not limited to, a service switching point, a servicecontrol point, a line information database, a caller name databaseand/or another database, an intelligent peripheral, other advancedintelligent network (AIN) network elements, and combinations thereof.Based upon the herein-disclosed high-level description and flow chart,one or more computer programs, such as service scripts, to direct thetelephone network elements 16 to cooperate in providing the servicelogic are within the skill of a routineer in the art oftelecommunications.

As indicated by block 100, a telephone number of a called party isdialed by a calling party. For purposes of illustration and example, thetelephone number is dialed by an end user using a telephone terminal 20connected to a telephone line 22. Examples of the telephone terminal 20include, but are not limited to, a telephone set, a facsimile machine,and a computer having a modem.

Regardless of its specific form, the telephone terminal 20 comprises adialing interface 24 and an electroacoustic transducer 26. Preferably,the dialing interface 24 comprises a standard telephone keypad havingdialing digit keys of “0” to “9”, a “*” key, and a “#” key. A tonegenerator 28 is responsive to the telephone keypad to generate dual-tonemulti-frequency (DTMF) signals. Signals generated by the tone generator28 are applied to the telephone line 22. The electroacoustic transducer26 may comprise a speaker to generate audible acoustic pressure wavesbased upon signals received from the telephone line 22.

The telephone terminal 20 also comprises a hook switch 29. The hookswitch 29 is used to place the telephone terminal 20 in either anon-hook state or an off-hook state.

Using a landline telephone set, for example, the end user can take thetelephone off-hook (e.g. by picking up a handset) and dial the telephonenumber using the standard telephone keypad.

As indicated by block 102, the telephone number dialed by the callingparty is received by one of the telephone network elements 16.Typically, the aforementioned telephone network element includes aswitch within the public telephone network 10, such as a serviceswitching point at a central office which serves the calling party.

As indicated by block 104, a name of the called party is retrieved froma database. The name of the called party is retrieved from the databasebased upon the dialed number received in block 102. The database mayinclude a caller name (CNAM) database having a plurality of party namesor state names, each of which is associated with a corresponding number.The name of the called party may be retrieved by a service control pointor another of the telephone network elements 16.

For purposes of illustration and example, consider the database tocomprise computer-readable data for parties having telephone linesdenoted by reference numerals 30, 32, and 34. The telephone line 30 isassociated with a fictitious individual named Jane Doe having afictitious telephone number of 847/555-0120. The telephone line 32 isassociated with a fictitious individual named John Smith having afictitious telephone number of 847/555-0121. The telephone line 34 isassociated with a fictitious individual named John Doe having afictitious telephone number of 847/555-0147. Hence, the databasecomprises first data which associates the number 847/555-0120 with thename Jane Doe, second data which associates the number 847/555-0121 withthe name John Smith, and third data which associates the number847/555-0147 with the name John Doe.

As indicated by block 106, an audio message is generated based upon thename of the called party. The audio message may be generated by anintelligent peripheral or another of the telephone network elements 16capable of speech synthesis and/or speech playback. Preferably, theaudio message includes verbal or spoken information indicating the nameof the called party.

Continuing with the above example, if the calling party dialed847/555-0120, the audio message may comprise “dialing Jane Doe.” If thecalling party dialed 847/555-0121, the audio message may comprise“dialing John Smith.” If the calling party dialed 847/555-0147, theaudio message may comprise “dialing John Doe.”

Optionally, the audio message further includes the dialed number. Forexample, if the calling party dialed 847/555-0120, the audio message maycomprise “dialing Jane Doe at 847/555-0120.”

As indicated by block 110, the audio message is communicated to thecalling party. The audio message is communicated via the publictelephone network 10 to the telephone line 22. The audio message may becommunicated from the intelligent peripheral to the telephone line 22via the service switching point which serves the telephone line 22.Preferably, the audio message is communicated to the calling partybefore the call is routed to the called party.

As indicated by block 112, the audio message is received by the callingparty. The audio message is received by the telephone terminal 20 viathe telephone line 22. The audio message is made audible to the end userby the electroacoustic transducer 26 of the telephone terminal 20.Preferably, the audio message is received and made audible before thecall is routed to the called party.

Based on the audio message, the calling party may choose either toterminate the call, as indicated by block 114, or to continue with thecall, as indicated by block 116. To terminate the call, the callingparty may hang-up the telephone terminal 20 or otherwise return thetelephone terminal 20 to an on-hook state. To continue with the call,the calling party maintains the telephone terminal 20 in the off-hookstate.

If the telephone terminal 20 is maintained in the off-hook state, thecall is routed between the calling party and the called party, asindicated by block 120. Optionally, a delay period is provided betweencommunicating the audio message and routing the call, as indicated byblock 122. This gives the calling party a time period to terminate thecall before the call is routed.

If the telephone terminal 20 is maintained in the off-hook statethroughout the delay period (i.e. an absence of an on-hook state isdetermined throughout the delay period), the call is routed to thecalled party after the delay period. If the telephone terminal 20 isreturned to the on-hook state before the end of the delay period, thecall is not routed to the called party. In particular, the on-hook stateis detected by one of the telephone network elements 16, as indicated byblock 124, and the call is terminated based on said detecting, asindicated by block 126.

Continuing with the above example, consider that the calling partywishes to call John Smith at 847/555-0121. Further consider that thecalling party initially misdials the last digit of John Smith's numberby dialing 847/555-0120 using the dialing interface 24. In this case,the calling party receives an audio message such as “dialing Jane Doe”which is made audible by the electroacoustic transducer 26.

Based on the audio message, the calling party may determine that he/shehas misdialed John Smith's number, and may choose to terminate the callby placing the telephone terminal 20 in an on-hook state. The callingparty can terminate the call before the call is routed to the telephoneline 30 of Jane Doe. By terminating the call in this manner, a telephone40 coupled to the telephone line 30 does not ring.

Thereafter, the calling party may place the telephone terminal 20 in anoff-hook state and reattempt to dial John Smith. Consider that thecalling party correctly dials 847/555-0121 in this attempt. In thiscase, the calling party receives an audio message such as “dialing JohnSmith” which is made audible by the electroacoustic transducer 26. Basedon the audio message, the calling party may determine that he/she hascorrectly dialed John Smith's number, and may choose to continue withthe call by performing no acts with the hook switch 29.

After the delay period, the call is routed to the telephone line 32. Atelephone 42 coupled to the telephone line 32 rings based on the call.John Smith or another person may answer the call using the telephone 42to communicate with the calling party.

As stated earlier, providing service logic to direct the telephonenetwork elements 16 to cooperate as described herein is within the skillof a routineer in the art of telecommunications. For example, a serviceswitching point which serves the telephone line 22 may communicate aquery message to a service control point or another telephone networkelement. The query message may include the number dialed by the callingparty. Based on the query message, the service control point maycommunicate a reply message back to the service switching point. Thereply message may include the called party name or state name, andcall-handling instructions specific to the telephone service. Theservice switching point may handle the call based on the call-handlinginstructions. These call-handling instructions may include the serviceswitching point employing an intelligent peripheral or another networkelement capable of providing an audio representation of the called partyname or state name.

Embodiments of the herein-disclosed methods may be directed bycomputer-readable instructions encoded on a computer-readable medium.The contents of the computer-readable medium cause the one or morenetwork elements 16 to perform the herein-disclosed acts. For thispurpose, at least one computer processor associated with the one or moretelephone network elements 16 is responsive to the contents of thecomputer-readable medium.

Examples of the computer-readable medium include, but are not limitedto, a computer-readable storage medium and a computer-readablecommunication medium. Examples of a computer-readable storage mediuminclude, but are not limited to, an optical storage medium, anelectronic storage medium, and a magnetic storage medium. Thecomputer-readable storage medium may include stored data which encodecomputer program code and/or other computer-readable instructions.

Examples of a computer-readable communication medium include, but arenot limited to, an optical communication medium, an electroniccommunication medium, and an electromagnetic communication medium. Thecontents of the computer-readable communication medium may include oneor more waveforms which encode computer data such as computer programcode and/or other computer-readable instructions.

Thus, there has been described herein several embodiments includingpreferred embodiments of method, system, and article for audiblyidentifying a called party.

By communicating a herein-disclosed audio message to the calling party,the calling party has an opportunity to terminate a misdialed calleither before the called party's telephone has rung or before the calledparty has answered the call. By routing a call in the absence of anypost-audio-message input received from the calling party, the servicerequires no additional user actions for correctly-dialed calls.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosedinvention may be modified in numerous ways and may assume manyembodiments other than the preferred form specifically set out anddescribed above. For example, either in addition to or as an alternativeto audibly presenting the name of the called party, a visiblerepresentation of the name may be provided to the calling party. Thevisible representation of the list may be provided using acaller-identification display unit coupled to the telephone line 22.

Although described for use with a wireline telephone network,embodiments of the telephone service also may be used in conjunctionwith a wireless telephone network. Further, although described for usewith the public telephone network 10, embodiments of the presentinvention may be used in conjunction with a private telephone network.

Accordingly, it is intended by the appended claims to cover allmodifications of the invention which fall within the true spirit andscope of the invention.

1. A method comprising: receiving, from a calling party, a dialed numberof a called party; in response to the receipt of the dialed number,generating a dialed number query which includes information about thedialed number of the called party; communicating the dialed number queryto a network element; using the network element to retrieve from adatabase information about a name of the called party based on thedialed number in the dialed number query; generating a dialed numberreply which includes information about the name of the called party; inresponse to the dialed number reply, generating audio information whichincludes the name of the called party; and communicating the audioinformation to the calling party.
 2. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: beginning a call between the calling party and the calledparty after said communicating the audio information.
 3. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising, prior to said receiving the dialed number ofthe called party: receiving a misdialed number from the calling party;in response to the receipt of the misdialed number, generating amisdialed number query which includes information about the misdialednumber; communicating the misdialed number query to a network element;using the network element to retrieve from the database informationabout a name of a party associated with the misdialed number; generatinga misdialed number reply which includes information about the name ofthe party associated with the misdialed number; and in response to themisdialed number reply, generating audio information which includes thename of the party associated with the misdialed number.
 4. The method ofclaim 2 further comprising: communicating the audio information whichincludes the name of the party associated with the misdialed number tothe calling party.
 5. The method of claim 4 further comprising, aftercommunicating the audio information which includes the name of the partyassociated with the misdialed number and prior to receiving the dialednumber of the called party: inhibiting the beginning of a call to theparty associated with the misdialed number for a time period; detectingan on-hook state from the calling party during the time period; andterminating the call to the party associated with the misdialed numberbased on said detecting.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:determining an absence of an on-hook state from the calling party duringa time period after communicating the audio information; and routing thecall after the time period.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:determining an absence of any post-audio-information input received fromthe calling party during a time period after communicating the audiomessage; and routing the call after the time period.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the audio information further includes information aboutthe dialed number.